


Changing Camouflage

by Kuttie



Series: Twitchy Timeloop Sidestories [1]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Accidental Use of Alcohol, Alternate Universe - Underfresh, Body snatching, Brotherly Love, Cinnamon Roll Papyrus, Fresh is cruel and smart, Gen, Quite short chapters, References to Undertale Genocide Route, Sans is a prankster, Sans-centric, Tragedy/Comedy, fun with an open and sad but cool and mind blowing ending
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-08
Updated: 2018-01-25
Packaged: 2018-10-01 06:18:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 11,605
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10182725
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kuttie/pseuds/Kuttie
Summary: Nightmares, followed by nightmares, followed by nightmares. Papyrus can't stand it any longer.Since he can't be with Sans all the time, Papyrus decides to find him something that distracts him and calms him down.Sans already knows all of this. He has been trapped in this repeating timeline for a long time.But when his brother comes back, something is off.And that's when strange things start to happen.





	1. Changing Rerun

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into Deutsch available: [Veränderliche Verkleidung](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12649053) by [Kuttie](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kuttie/pseuds/Kuttie)



> Author's note:
> 
> English is not my native language.  
> The betareader of this story is my tumblr friend Breezie.  
> Fresh Sans / True Fresh was created by http://loverofpiggies.tumblr.com/.
> 
> Undertale was created by Toby Fox.

There was no mercy in its red eyes.

The child's sharp blade sliced through the air, cut through soft blue fabric with ease and collided with their opponent's rib cage.  
Delicate cracks started to appear on the pearly bones, growing in size and length. Scarlet red beads formed at the edges, increasing in size and falling to the ground, collecting in puddles upon the tiled floor.

 Sans the skeleton tried to stand upright, but his own body betrayed him and started to shake and stagger instead.

His shaky eye lights looked down to the shimmering red liquid at his feet.  
He noticed some movement in the haze that covered his mind. Two red lights were moving towards him. Fast.  
Suddenly his whole existence was filled with agonizing pain, his breath caught. The blade sunk deep into his still beating soul. His body began to disintegrate.

Sans screamed.

\----------------------------------------------------

A wooden board ram itself violently into a nearby wall, seemingly guided by the blue glowing magic covering it.

"SANS!"

Books flew like upset bats across the room.

"SANS! WAKE UP!"

Socks crashed into the floor, leaving small craters.  
The tall skeleton in the room quickly dodged a flying trash can and shook his sleeping brother desperately.

"WAKE UP! PLEASE!!!"

Finally, Sans woke up from his nightmare. He blinked slowly, looking up in slight confusion at the big skeleton's worried expression. "Sup, Papyrus...?"

"IT HAPPENED AGAIN!" Papyrus looked like he would cry at any moment, tears shimmering in his eyes.

"Oh." Sans looked across the room. His bedroom. It was completely destroyed. Huge parts of his bookcase were sticking out of the walls like some sort of abstract staircase. The windows were broken, glass shards scattered across the floor, and he could hear a dog's scared whines coming out of the trash can wedged in the ceiling. "Looks like utter _bed_ lam in here", Sans joked, smirking.

"UGH! THIS IS NOT THE RIGHT TIME FOR YOUR PUNS! WE HAVE TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS!" his brother scolded in his usual loud voice, as he freed the dog from its prison. "THIS WAS THE FIFTH NIGHTMARE IN A ROW!"

"Huh. Nice. A new record", he chided, still too tired to care, beginning to doze off once again.

"SANS! THIS IS A SERIOUS MATTER! AT THIS RATE I'LL HAVE TO REMOVE EVERY SINGLE PIECE OF FURNITURE FROM YOUR ROOM TO PREVENT ANY MORE DAMAGE! YOU NEED HELP!"

"If you say so, bro..." Sans yawned and fell asleep.

 

When Sans woke again, he was lying on the old green sofa in their living room. _"Huh",_ he thought. It seemed that Papyrus had carried him there. Sans stretched sleepily and touched his chest absentmindedly.  
Yeah, right. He got attacked by the human again.  
  
With a frustrated groan, Sans grabbed the warm blanket lying on the back of the sofa, and wrapped himself in it.

Usually he wasn't able to keep track of the repeating timelines, but this time was different. He could still remember every single damage the human child had ever inflicted to his bones. Every single time their knife bisected his soul, destroying his single HP in the process.

He knew exactly what would happen next. Every single second was the same, every moment a repeating mockery. He felt like he was trapped in a rerun forever, and he was so tired of it. It didn't matter what he did or how hard he tried, in the end the human child would kill everyone and restart everything, trapping the skeleton in some kind of twisted time loop.  
  
Sans already had given up so many reruns ago. He simply couldn't care anymore. Not as though it mattered, _everyone would die anyway._  
  
His eyes caught the clock hanging on the wall, next to the sofa.  
  
Oh. Right. Papyrus would be back very soon.  
  
With a loud and happy “NYEH HEH HEH!” Papyrus jumped through the already open window into the house. A sudden fart noise startled him and he looked down, only to realize that he had landed on one of his brother's whoopie cushions.  
  
“Be careful, bro. Someone is leaving these things behind”, Sans said, winking.  
  
“SERIOUSLY??? SANS! THIS IS NOT FUNNY!”  
  
Sans began to snicker gladly. Pranking his brother still amused him and was the only thing that kept him sane and stable.

  
Papyrus shook his head in annoyance. “HOWEVER! I DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THIS!” He raised his hands, holding a very dirty shoe box and looking like he just had met Santa Claus. “SANS! LOOK!”  
  
“Oh? Are you finally ready to take the next _step_ in our relationship, bro?”  
  
Papyrus' confused and dumbfounded look was a sight for the gods. Sans could barely stifle his laughter. Joyful tears appeared at the rims of his eye sockets.  
  
The tall skeleton was in a huff now, even stomping his right foot on the ground. “SANS! THAT'S IT! I'LL LEAVE RIGHT NOW!”  
  
“Aw, don't be like that, I really want to see what you wanted to show me...” Sans did his best to look heartbroken and feigning an interest.  
  
Of course he already knew what was in the shoe box. He had seen the small pet stone in it _many, many_ times before.  
  
“NYEH HEH HEH! ALL RIGHT! THE GREAT PAPYRUS SHALL FORGIVE YOU, SANS!” exclaimed Papyrus proudly, beaming with glee. After this he kneeled down to Sans on the sofa. “SINCE I CAN'T BE WITH YOU ALL THE TIME THANKS TO MY VERY IMPORTANT TRAINING SESSIONS, I'VE DECIDED TO FIND YOU SOMETHING TO KEEP YOU COMPANY DURING BAD TIMES.” He removed the lid of the shoe box in a theatrical manner. “LO AND BEHOLD, SANS! THIS IS YOUR NEW BEST FRIEND!”  
  
Sans' eyesockets widened with surprised shock.  
  
_In the box sat the ugliest squid he had ever seen._


	2. Changing Noise

Sans stared in utter disbelief at the creature in the shoe box right in front of him.

It looked a colorblind artist tried to paint a fusion of a starfish and a squid. The thing was mostly covered by dust, but Sans could still see parts of its purple skin shimmering in the light of the living room's ceiling lamp.

"I FOUND THIS POOR THING IN THE WOODS!" Papyrus explained.

Sans poked it carefully. It felt cold and slimy and didn't move. He frowned. "This squid is dead, bro..."

Papyrus’ face instantly fell and before his brother was able to annoy him with a fitting pun, he quickly grabbed the squid and pressed it gently against his own rib cage, cradling it like a (butt-ugly) baby.

"Uh... I wouldn't touch that."

"SANS! YOU'RE HURTING HER FEELINGS!"

"'Her'...?"

"YES! HER NAME IS VIOLET AND SHE'S YOUR VERY BEST FRIEND, SANS! DON'T BE MEAN TO HER!" Papyrus pet the squid carefully with his index finger. Suddenly, it started to twitch and Papyrus' eyes began to sparkle. "SEE? SHE'S NOT DEAD, SHE WAS JUST SLEEPING!"

"If you say so..." Sans watched the squirming squid and moved out of the way, quickly sliding down towards the other end of the sofa before getting up when his brother tried to give it to him. "Uh, no thanks. I'm currently not in the mood for... this."

"AW! BUT SHE'S SO CUTE!" Papyrus was holding the thing at Sans' eye level. A strange crack started to form on its body, and opened to reveal itself to be a black eye, rimmed with gold and red circles and lined with tiny shark teeth. "JUST LOOK AT HER!"

Sans' permanent grin began to falter and he suddenly felt very sick.

Luckily, his brother decided to finally leave him alone and put the squid into a fish tank, which was sitting on a table in the living room, right next to the kitchen door. The squid immediately tried to climb out of the tank, constantly sliding down the glass walls to no avail.

Papyrus prevented a successful escape by covering the tank with its lid. "DON'T BE SILLY, VIOLET", he reprimanded, waggling a finger in authority. "THE WORLD IS A DANGEROUS PLACE, YOU WOULD ONLY HURT YOURSELF." With a bright smile he pointed at the decoration in the fish tank, consisting of a small sandy hill, a fake plant and a tiny wooden house for guinea pigs. "THIS LITTLE HOME WAS ORIGINALLY PLANNED FOR A PET STONE, BUT FEEL FREE TO USE IT. THE GREAT PAPYRUS CHOSE ONLY THE BEST THINGS, NYEH HEH HEH HEH!" After a short pause he added: "UNTIL SANS FINALLY MANAGES TO FEED YOU ON A REGULAR BASIS, I'LL MAKE THE FINEST SPAGHETTI FOR YOU, VIOLET!"

For some strange reason the squid immediately started to shiver violently.

"ARE YOU COLD? DON'T WORRY ABOUT IT." Papyrus ran off and came back after a while, an infrared lamp in his hands. He put it onto the table, right in front of the fish tank and switched it on. Warm light fell onto the shivering squid. "YOUR NEW HOME WILL BE COZY VERY SOON."

The squid quickly moved out of the light to the little wooden house and tried to squeeze itself into it. But it looked like it was way too big.

"OH DEAR, LOOKS LIKE YOU NEED A DIET, VIOLET!" Papyrus exclaimed with a shocked expression, looking down at the squid that was now hiding in the shadow of its little house.

Before he could say anything more, a sudden loud noise startled Papyrus and he began to stare at its source, frowning in confusion.

A small white dog rushed out of the kitchen, dragging some kind of huge skull along with it.

As soon as Papyrus spotted the animal he instantly started to chase it. “SANS! STOP THIS MEDDLING CANINE!”

Sans relaxed again, seeing that the timeline was back at its usual repeating schedule. “Gotcha, bro”, he slurred and feigned an attempt of catching the dog.

But it slipped through his bony fingers and jumped out of the window. “ _Whelp_. This was a sad _tail_ of me _paw_ sing too long and failing.”

“SAAAAAAANS!” Papyrus wailed in frustration, both of his arms outstretched towards the ceiling. “MY POOR SPECIAL ATTACK! JUST YOU WAIT, DOG! I WILL GET YOU! NYEEEEH!” He jumped out of the window, following his small target.

Such a determined and cool guy. Sans chuckled, feeling brotherly awe.

A shuffling movement from the fish tank caught his attention. The squid was still trying to flee from the light of the infrared lamp.

“Oh. Wait a sec.” Sans shambled towards the table and moved the lamp away. “See? Everything is better now.”

The squid peeked over the rooftop and wiggled two of its appendages. It almost looked like it was pleading.

Sans frowned. “Sorry, I don't know how to handle something like you. I don't even know what you are and why you're suddenly in this timeline. If I were you, I'd get out of here as soon as possible.”

He felt silly now.

 _“Already talking to a weird looking sea creature, huh?”_ he thought. _“I should take a nap.”_

 

No sooner thought than done, Sans was lying on his bed, ready to fall asleep at any moment. Sleep evaded him however, as he could hear sudden loud noises from the living room.

 

“NYOO HOO HOO! MY POOR, POOR SPECIAL ATTACK! STUPID DOG!”

 

Sans pulled the blanket over his head and closes his eyes. His pillow sure felt warm and cozy right now.

 

Barking.

“NYEH?! THE DOG'S BACK??? JUST YOU WAIT, THIS TIME I'LL GET YOU!”

Heart-melting whimpering.

“WHA-? WHAT'S WRONG? DID I SCARE YOU? I'M SO SORRY! COME HERE...”

Stomping.

“SEE? EVERYTHING IS ALRIGHT NOW. HOW ABOUT SOME SPAGHETTI NOW?“

Happy licking noises.

“HUH? AH! AHAHAHAH! THAT TICKLES! STOP THAT! AHAHAHA!”

 

Sans fell asleep.

 

Only to be suddenly woken up by a terrified scream. His _brother's_ scream.

 

 _Immediately_ Sans rolled out of his warm blanket, staggered drowsily across his room, collided with the wall right next to the door and managed to get out to the corridor two seconds later.

Papyrus was sitting on the tiled floor of the kitchen, covering his eyes and sobbing desperately. Tomato sauce was spilled everywhere, the room looked like a battlefield.

“What's wrong, bro?” Sans asked worriedly, rubbing his temple.

“I... I TRIED TO MAKE SPAGHETTI BUT THE TOMATO SAUCE BOILED OVER AND ATTACKED ME! NYOO HOO HOO!” his brother explained and pointed with squinting eyes at the tipped over pot filled with tomato sauce on the _turned off_ stove.

“Oh. Should I... get you a cold pack for your eyes?” Sans yawned, now relaxed again at the news that his brother was alright.

“N-NO. IT'S ALRIGHT, BROTHER. IT'S JUST TOMATO SAUCE. THE AWESOME PAPYRUS CAN HANDLE EVEN THIS EVIL VEGETABLE LIQUID! NYEH HEH HEH!” When Papyrus stood up, he was visibly shaking. “I... I JUST NEED A SHORT BREAK...” He wobbled out of the kitchen and up the staircase to his own bedroom.

In the meantime, Sans replaced the pot filled with _ice-cold_ tomato sauce. When he was back in the living room, he peeked at the fish tank.

Some part of the squid was _sticking out_ of the small house, wiggling lazily.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nothing weird here. Everything is totally fine.


	3. Changing Path

Snow fell onto the branch, packing into a bigger snow pile until the branch wasn't able to hold it anymore. It gave way, and the snow pile landed on Sans' head with a soft sound.

" _Snow_ matter", he mumbled to himself. "I don't have skin, I don't feel the cold anyways." Like in several former repeats, the small skeleton bummed around his sentry station, doing sweet F.A. and filling his skeletal body up with random condiments. Needless to say, Ketchup was his preferred drink.

Sans gazed at the snowbound path leading through the thick forest to his station. Usually, he would wait for the human in the underwood right at the entry to the ruins, but this time he simply wasn't in the mood.

Right on cue, a small and quite dusty figure made their way through the snow, the blade of their knife flashing in the dim light.

Sans got up with a broad yawn, stretched himself extensively, brushed the snow off his head, left the sentry station and trudged lazily into the figure's path. "'sup?" he greeted the small child in front of him, adding a wink.

It didn't answer, raised one of its hands and looked at him expectantly.

"Alright, alright. The same as last time", Sans mumbled, the common lazy grin on his face. "Hello, human. Don't you know how to greet a new pal?" he began. Suddenly his lazy grin turned quite wicked. "Rude kids like you should be burning in hell!"

The child avoided the sudden blast of the giant floating skull by a hair's breadth.

"What are you doing?!" the child ranted, its young voice being a unfitting discrepancy to its creepily distorted face. "Keep your promise to Toriel and spare me until the judgement hall or I'll **kill** you!"

Sans yawned again and scratched the back of his head. "You'll kill me anyways, kiddo," he slurred. "I'm not in the mood for playing along right now, ya know?"

Right before the angry child was able to reply, the sound of heavy boots trudging through the snow became louder and louder, drawing their attention.

"HELLO! WHAT ARE YOU DOING, BROTHER?" Papyrus exclaimed while coming nearer, a wide smile on his face reaching up to his closed eyes.

 _"Huh,"_ Sans thought. _"Looks like bro is in an extraordinarily good mood today. That's a nice change for sure."_

All of a sudden the child rushed towards the tall skeleton, jumped onto his back, and pressed the knife against his chest while holding on to his battle armor with its free hand.

Papyrus squinted his eyes in shock and fear. "N-NYEH???"

A devilish look in its blood-red eyes, the child glared right into Sans' eye sockets. "Obey or else your useless brother will be dusted way sooner than intended."

Sans' eye lights disappeared and he silently bowed his head, staring to the ground.

"Thought so," the child stated smiling, gave the shaking Papyrus a friendly pat on his skull and let him go. "That was fun. It'll be **LOVE** ly to meet you again." It maneuvered around the two skeletons, turned right on the snowy path and then vanished out of sight.

Poor Papyrus gulped, clutching his chest. It looked like he was in pain.

"Are you alright, bro...?" Sans asked worriedly, struggling to relax again.

"Y-YES, SANS. WHO... OR WHAT WAS THAT?" his brother asked in a shaky voice.

"A human," Sans mumbled. "Just a human."

"H-HUMANS ARE SCARY..." Papyrus stated, looking really tired.

"Bro, you don't look good. Let's go home and take a rest, okay...?" With a soft sigh Sans snuggled into his hoodie, searching for some kind of emotional comfort.

"BUT MY TRAINING!" protested his brother instantly, snapped his eyes open and began to _fume._ "I PROMISED UNDYNE I WOULD BE THERE! THE AWESOME PAPYRUS NEVER SLEEPS!"

"Bro, calm down. You don't have to sleep. Just tell her that you need a break for a few hours. She'll understand."

"O-OKAY, BROTHER..." Papyrus stopped fuming, looking quite exhausted.

 _"Poor guy,"_ Sans thought wearily. _"The human's attack sure took a toll on him. Bro has never fumed like **this** before."_

 

It was already late in the day when they got home.

 

Sans instantly flopped onto the sofa in the cozy living room and closed his eyes.

_Home, sweet home, indeed._

He could hear Papyrus heading towards the kitchen. His brother's steps stopped abruptly and a wet squishing noise emerged, followed by a shocked gasp.

“VIOLET! NO!!! **NO!!!** WHYYYY???!!! NYOO HOO HOO HOO!”

Sans opened his eyes in confusion and surprise, and got off the sofa.

Papyrus kneeled in front of the fish tank, sobbing heartrendingly.

“B-Bro...? What happened?” Sans asked carefully.

His brother snuffled and raised his shaking gloved hands to his face to cover his eyes. The gloves' palms were covered in some kind of glitter. “I... I AM A BAD HOST, SANS... I'M **SO** SORRY! SHE WAS YOUR **BEST** FRIEND! NYOO HOO HOO!”

With a heavy heart Sans looked at the fish tank.

The infrared lamp was set on the highest setting, its burning light covered everything in the tank. And all that was left of the squid was a small pile of purple glitter, scattered across the inside.

“Bro... Bro... No... You're not a bad host... You really aren't... It was **my** fault... I didn't take care of her, I'm so sorry...” Sans murmured, feeling truly terrible while trying to comfort his brother. Then he had an idea. “Hey... How about calling Undyne and inviting her to Violet's funeral? I bet she knows how to handle this, she's the head of the royal guard after all...”

Papyrus was drenched in tears, but at least he was smiling now, nodding slightly. “W-WILL VIOLET GET A NICE TOMB STONE...?”

“Of course, bro.” Sans smiled sadly. “It'll be the best tomb stone ever.” Seeing his brother perking up a little bit, Sans let out a relieved sigh. “Alright. I'll call her now.”

 

It didn't take long until Undyne arrived at the front door, carrying a huge pile of DVDs. She looked quite concerned, even her voice and demeanor were quieter and less boasting than usual.

Papyrus sat on the sofa, burying his face in his still glittering gloved hands.

“Heeeey, hello, Papyrus,” Undyne greeted him, putting the DVD pile in front of the sofa and sitting down next to him. She rubbed his skull gently. “Don't be sad. I bet Viola would prefer to see you smiling.”

“Her name is _'Violet'_ ,” Sans corrected her calmly.

“Oh. Oops. My bad,” Undyne rubbed the back of her head sheepishly.

Then she gritted her sharp teeth and jumped up off the sofa. “UGH! I can't STAND all this SADNESS! Papyrus! I know EXACTLY what will cheer you UP! Just look at THIS!” She grabbed the DVD on top of the pile and punched the rest of it, the pile toppled over and the DVDs scattered across the floor. “NGAAAH! NOTHING beats a GOOD movie filled with BLOOD and VIOLENCE and random SWEAR WORDS when you're SAD!” She opened the DVD case while shouting her battle cry and threw the disk violently into the DVD player, causing it to fall from the card board box it was standing on.

“Your player is TOO weak!” Undyne complained, looking quite dissapointed.

Luckily, the DVD-Player still worked after her rough handling and started to play the movie without any problems.

Undyne sat back down onto the sofa and gave Papyrus a friendly pat on the back, while he was busy rubbing his teary eyes.

In the meantime Sans turned off the infrared lamp and used his magic to carry the heavy fish tank out of the house and into the small shack right next to it. It was the skeleton's garage, perfect for storing things and trapping humans.

When he came back, Undyne was raging. Papyrus covered his head with his hands while she forced random DVDs into the player, staring at the TV screen.

“Uhm... what's wrong, Undyne?” Sans asked confusedly.

“This player is broken! **BROKEN!** Every single movie looks TOTALLY wrong!” Undyne exclaimed, looking quite frustrated.

When Sans glanced at the screen he saw warrior princesses bathing in pink and green “blood” while shouting childish swear words at random. “Interesting,” he mumbled. “Since when does our DVD-Player censor overly heavy stuff?”

A soft sob from Papyrus caused Sans to look at him.

_“IT'S ALRIGHT, SANS. I PREFER **PG** MOVIES, ANYWAYS.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> B;-)  
> PG's da best, yo.


	4. Changing Color

Undyne's spears rammed into the frozen ground over and over again, dirt and snow flew everywhere until the hole was big enough for the dirty shoe box filled with the squid's remains.

Sans buried the small box without saying a word, his brother stood next to Undyne, sobbing and rubbing his eyes.

The trio was somewhere in the deep woods right next to their home town Snowdin.

Undyne stroked Papyrus' back gently, a sympathetic smile on her scaled face. "Violet's not gone completely. She lives on in you, as long as you remember her,“ she said, trying to cheer up the crying skeleton.

"IT HURTS...“ he mumbled, clutching his chest. "IT HURTS SO MUCH...“

"Having a heartache is normal for someone in grief,“ Sans informed him. "Don't worry, bro. You'll get better, trust me. You're the great Papyrus after all.“ He added a wink.

Papyrus smiled, his face still slightly contorted with pain. "Y-YES. I CAN DEAL WITH THE PAIN. I AM AWESOME. I AM STRONG. I AM PART OF THE ROYAL GUARD.“

 

The next morning.

 

Sans was still asleep on his mattress. Luckily, he hadn't experienced any nightmares that night.

A sudden soft knock on his door woke him up. “...huh...?” Sans blinked sleepily and looked over at the slightly opened door.

Papyrus peeked through the crack. Underneath his barely opened and swollen eye sockets lay dark rings, which stood out heavily against his pearly white bones.

“B-Bro...? You look terrible. Did you cry all night...?” Sans asked worriedly.

“IT HURTS...” Papyrus muttered exhaustedly.

“You should stay home today, bro. I'll call Undyne.”

“N-NO! I AM FINE! I-I CAN DEAL WITH THE PAIN! I AM A GREAT HOST!” Papyrus suddenly exclaimed, followed by an embarrassed look for some unknown reason. “I-I MEAN, I AM A GREAT GUY!”

“Alright, alright... How about you make some spaghetti for breakfast...?” Sans asked him with a smile. He knew about his brother's terrible cooking skills, but right now he would even eat the whole plate of pasta to cheer the poor guy up.

 

Sans sat at the kitchen table, watching his brother prepare the meal. Papyrus' movements were clumsy and stiff, and he let the big pot fall to the ground a few times. Its loud jangling noises rang in Sans' non-existing ears, making it impossible for him to doze off properly.

After several attempts Papyrus was finally able to finish making the spaghetti. He put a plate of it in front of Sans, who frowned in confusion at the rainbow colored pasta, but he didn't say a word, and forced the weird looking stuff down.

It tasted like crayons and stale putty and Sans was barely able to stifle a disgusted whimper.

“D-DO YOU WANT MORE OF IT, BROTHER...?” Papyrus asked, holding the almost brimmed pot in his hands expectantly.

“Uh... N-No thanks. I'm already full...” Sans lied.

“OH... OKAY THEN...” his brother mumbled, as the pot slid out of his shaking hands and fell to the ground, spilling its contents everywhere. A lot of it landed on Sans, leaving colorful stains.

“Oh dear...” he mumbled. “Well, bro, this is _spot_ on.”

“N-NYEH??? OH NO! I-I AM SO SORRY, SANS!” Papyrus threw his hands up in shock. “Y-YOU CAN'T DO YOUR JOBS, LOOKING LIKE THAT!”

“Nah, it's fine. Just a few stains, I can deal with that.”

“N-NO! I WILL WASH YOUR CLOTHES AND YOU WILL WEAR SOMETHING CLEAN IN THE MEANTIME, SANS!” Papyrus commanded, _visibly_ fuming.

“Bro, my other jacket is still in the washer.”

“NYEH HEH HEH! DON'T FRET, BROTHER! WE STILL HAVE YOUR CLOTHES FROM THE COSTUME PARTY!”

“Didn't you forbid me to _ever_ wear that again?” Sans asked confusedly.

“TODAY IS AN EXCEPTION, SANS!” His brother was still fuming.

“Okay...”

 

In the shack next to their house, Papyrus unlocked the trunk the costume was stored in, and handed it to Sans. Sans looked at the extremely fluorescent jacket in his hands.

Its colors were a disgusting combination of a bright blue base, yellow sleeves and pockets, and a neon pink hood. The pants of his costume were orange with yellow stripes running down the sides. Last, but not least, his shoes completed the eyesore ensemble with their blinding green color.

“You're **really** sure about this?” he asked his brother with a raised non-existant eyebrow.

“YES! THE AWESOME PAPYRUS ALLOWS YOU TO WEAR YOUR TERRIBLE COSTUME!” Papyrus bellowed, rubbing his own chest in a soothing manner.

“Okay...” Sans reached for the shirt that was still lying in the trunk.

“BUT YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO WEAR YOUR 'LANGUAGE'-SHIRT WITH THAT!”

“But, bro, my 'colorful language' costume isn't complete with it.”

“NO! WEAR YOUR CAMOUFLAGE SHIRT INSTEAD!”

Sans let out a disappointed sigh. “Okay...”

 

“...”

“Grillbz says that he won't look at you until you took this terrible jacket off. He says that his eyes are hurting thanks to you,” the big bird sitting next to Sans translated with closed eyes.

Sans sighed. He was sitting at the bar of “Grillby's”, his favorite place, a bottle of ketchup in front of him.

When he put his jacket onto his lap, the other guests stopped shielding their eyes.

“I'm sorry, guys. But don't worry, I'll only wear this until my regular clothes are clean and dry again,” Sans said, trying to calm everyone down.

Grillby, being a well-dressed anthropomorphic flame, somehow managed to look relieved. “...”

“Grillbz is thanking you,” the bird translated.

“At-at least the dogs are colorblind...” a weird looking rabbitlike monster muttered.

One of the armored dogs in the tavern barked a response.

“W-What? You guys aren't???” the rabbit cried out in surprise.

The dog whined affirmatively.

“Hoooo boy, _even_ Greater Dog doesn't want to be near you right now, Sans,” another dog draped in a cloak chided.

“And that guy sure **loves** attention and being pet,” a female sounding dog added, wearing a similar cloak. “Why are you even wearing _this_?”

“My other clothes are in the washer and bro didn't want me wearing dirty stuff,” Sans explained, and took a sip from his ketchup bottle. “Don't worry, I'll get rid of this as soon as I have my regular stuff back.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Poor Papyrus. Grief sure taking its toll on him.  
> 


	5. Changing Awareness

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Small warning: A cat and a skeleton get drunk.

The barkeeper's flame body bathed everything in front of the small skeleton in a warm orange light.

Sans observed abstractedly the spots of light on the wooden bar, refracted by his glass ketchup bottle.

 

A sudden loud noise startled him out of his reverie.

He glanced in confusion at the square figure who was now standing in the inn's opened door.

 **"HELLO, BEAUTIES AND GENTLEBEAUTIES!"** the figure exclaimed stagily while a grumpy looking anthromorphic tomcat behind them blew a bird whistle, creating a rather silly sound. **"WRONG WHISTLE!"** the figure chided, wagging an index finger. **"USE THE OTHER ONE."**

"Yes, Mettaton..." the cat mumbled. "I'll do whatever you want..." He put a thunderer whistle into his mouth, but before he was even able to take a deep breath, all hell broke loose.

"Mettaton!"

"It's Mettaton!"

"Why is he here??? This is awesome!"

"Woof!"

"Mettaton! You're the best!"

Everyone tried to get near to the square robot, pushing and pulling.

 **"CALM DOWN, EVERYONE!"** Mettaton ordered, his self-confident appearance alone was enough to relax the situation.

The cat behind him blew the whistle.

**"BURGERPANTS! WHAT ARE YOU DOING??? THAT WASN'T A JOYFUL SOUND! THAT WAS A DYING ANIMAL! USE MORE ENTHUSIASM!"**

Burgerpants blew the whistle again, creating the sound of an enthusiasticly dying animal.

Mettaton looked at him.

Everyone else did, too.

 

 

After a long awkward silence the robot turned his front side back to the eager crowd. **"IT'S UNDERSTANDABLE THAT YOU ARE CONFUSED ABOUT MY SUDDEN APPEARANCE IN THIS HUMBLE PLACE. BUT I AM NOT THE MAIN ATTRACTION TODAY! IT'S SOMEONE ELSE!"** Mettaton motioned a tall blue rabbit to enter the inn. **"BEAUTIES AND GENTLEBEAUTIES! WELCOME THE FRESHLY MINTED FATHER!"**

"Hello, everyone!" The blue rabbit grinned ecstatically, "It's a _wonderful_ day to be alive!"

"Hey! That's the nicecream guy!"

"Congrats, nicecream guy!"

Sheepishly, the blue rabbit rubbed the back of his head. "You can call me Miles," he offered and added: "Because I'm all s _miles_!"

"Okay, Miles!" everyone agreed in unison.

 

"Life's difficult, huh?" Sans mumbled when Burgerpants sat down on the barstool right next to him.

The cat whistled a dying sound in response, looking quite lifeless.

"Thought so."

 **"EVERYONE IS NOW ALLOWED TO ENJOY THEMSELVES! ALL DRINKS ARE ON ME!"** Mettaton exclaimed happily. **"IT'S TIME TO CELEBRATE MILE'S PARENTHOOD!"**

Everyone cheered, even Burgerpants started to perk up.

 **"ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION IS STRICTLY FORBIDDEN DURING WORK!"** the robot objurgated.

The cat's face fell again.

"Welcome to the club, buddy. I'm not allowed to drink alcohol, either," Sans muttered sympathetically, "Bro _hates_ it when I'm drunk."

Both of them ordered a drink. Sans chose a soft drink this time, while Burgerpant's reluctant choice was a smoothie.

When the main party started to relocate itself outside thanks to an impromptu stage show by Mettaton and Miles, Sans was feeling glad about the inn getting emptier.

He began to doze off slightly.

 

A soft clang woke him up and drew his attention.

Burgerpants was holding his brimmed glass and looked at the skeleton expectantly. Sans understood and raised his glass, too.

"Cheers, mate," they said in unison, and took a big gulp of their drinks.

With a confused expression, Sans peered at his now empty glass. "Huh, this soft drink tastes kinda weird," he muttered, feeling slightly tipsy all of a sudden.

Suddenly Burgerpants began to snicker. "It's because this drink isn't _soft_ anymore, buddy! I've added some strong alcohol to it!"

"Heh, changing a _soft_ drink into a _hard_ drink," Sans slurred. "That's a good one." He giggled and his mind started to get fuzzy.

"It's time for these two guys to _finally_ have some **fun!** WHOO!" the cat cried out.

 

When Sans woke up again, he was lying on the snow-covered roof of his house, and he wasn't sure why. The snow shined with the power of thousand suns into his eyes and the snowflakes fell with the loudness of bombs onto his skull.

"Great, just great," Sans mumbled with a hoarse voice and squinted his eyes in pain. "Looks like I have a major hangover."

The small skeleton rolled off the roof down to the ground and fell down into a huge soft snow pile. After he managed to stand up again, Sans staggered to the front door and leaned against it. He groaned with pain. His head felt like it could explode at any moment.

The door suddenly opened itself and Sans fell into his brother's arms.

"Sup, bro...?" he mumbled weakly. "I'm really sorry... I didn't mean to drink... Everything's too bright and too loud... ughhhh..."

Papyrus picked up Sans carefully and carried him without saying a word, shaking slightly. The tall skeleton still looked terrible, dark shadows under his barely opened eye sockets.

But Papyrus never stopped smiling.

When Sans snuggled into his brother's chest, he could hear unclear whispering.

 

_"... give him ... radical shades ... dude needs them... "_


	6. Changing Speech

There was no mercy in its red eyes.

The child's sharp blade sliced through the air, cut through soft blue fabric with ease and collided with a sudden appearing gigantic hand.

Confusedly, the child looked up. Sans did the same.

Over them loomed a giant Papyrus. His huge eyesockets were burning with a bright orange color and an endless amount of purple colored spaghetti poured out of his mouth.

The child tried to run away, but the pasta was everywhere, and soon the human was carried away by the mass and vanished in the distance.

Sans teleported into the air, but the purple spaghetti grabbed him by his arms and legs, as a sudden white light blinded him and some of the noodles began to crawl into his skull.

He screamed.

 

 

His scream still echoing in his mind, Sans' eyes snapped open in panic.

The small skeleton was lying on his bed, drenched in sweat and breathing heavily. Someone was holding his hand, Sans suddenly noticed. For some unknown reason, his vision was blurry and partially blacked out, like he was wearing an invisible eye patch.

"Bro...?" Sans asked and shuddered. He sounded awful. “I-Is that... you...?”

"IT... IT WAS JUST A NIGHTMARE, SANS..." Papyrus mumbled next to him and stroked Sans' skull soothingly. "EVERYTHING IS ALRIGHT NOW..."

"Guuh, that was one _weird_ nightmare. I mean, since when are your eyes glowing _orange_ and...?"

Papyrus made a confused _"Nyeh?"_ sound and Sans stopped babbling.

"Ugh, nevermind. I feel terrible..." he muttered and rubbed his eyes. They felt weird and some weird slimy substance stuck to his hands, when he stopped rubbing. _"Ugh,"_ Sans thought confusedly and blinked several times, trying to get a clear view of his surroundings, but everything stayed blurry. _"Did I try to eat my bro's pasta with my eye sockets while I was still drunk?"_

"THAT'S THE FAULT OF THESE TERRIBLE DRINKS, SANS..." Papyrus groaned and frowned in deprecation. "I'VE TOLD YOU TO NOT DRINK HARD DRINKS." He seemed to rub one of his eye sockets in an annoyed manner.

"Yeah, I know, I know, I'm really sorry..." Sans attempted a weak smile.

"YOU SHOULD STAY AT HOME TODAY. I'LL LOOK OUT FOR THE HUMAN INSTEAD OF YOU," Papyrus stated, sounding quite concerned.

"Aw, you're actually allowing me to take a sickie today?" Sans was honestly surprised. Only now did he realize that Papyrus sounded far better than before. "Oh, hey, how are you feeling today?"

"OH! I FEEL GREAT! NYEHEHEH!" His brother stood up and posed heroically, his red scarf flapping behind him in the non-existent wind. "I COULD CAPTURE TEN HUMANS AT ONCE!"

 

Sans suddenly remembered the timeline they were currently trapped in and sighed. He already knew what would happen in the end.

The bright red scarf lying on the grey dust pile that was once his brother. The human child laughing madly, the dusty knife in its hands.

It felt as though his dark thoughts scuttled like a bunch of restless ants in his skull. Absentmindedly he scratched one side of his head and tried to calm down again.

The scuttling stopped.

 

"SANS? ARE YOU OKAY...? DO YOU NEED SOME WATER...?"

"Nah. _Water_ 'bout some remoulade instead?" Sans joked and added a wink.

"NYEH! SERIOUSLY?! SANS!" Papyrus cried out in frustration. His sudden cartoony eye bulbs gave him a quite silly look.

Knowing that this goof would be gone very soon sure hurt his SOUL. But Sans tried to ignore the growing pain and forced himself to smile gladly.

"OH! WAIT! I KNOW WHAT YOU'RE MISSING! I TOTALLY FORGOT ABOUT THEM!" Papyrus left the room in a hurry.

 

And as soon as his brother was out of sight, a sudden sharp pain startled Sans and forced a surprised yelp out of him. His left eye socket suddenly felt like it was on fire. Sans tried to soothe the pain and rubbed his eyes, only to suddenly feel something soft and slimy in his still hurting left eye socket. And the pain in his SOUL grew even more, it was almost unbearable.

It began to dawn on Sans that something was very, very wrong with him.

 

Quickly he scrambled out of his bed and stumbled to the lonely cupboard in his room. He needed a mirror and he needed it fast.

 

After a quick hasty search, he found one. His hands were shaking so badly that the mirror almost fell to the ground. When he looked at his reflection, his breathing stopped. Even with his still heavily blurred and partially obscured vision, Sans was able to see the heart shaped bright light in his right eye socket. _"Is that my SO-"_

Before Sans was even able to end his thought, Papyrus entered his room again. "SANS! I HAVE SOMETHING REALLY COOL FOR YOU!" his brother declared proudly.

“O-oh, great. J-just give it to me, okay?” Sans spluttered, squinted his eyes, turned towards his brother's voice and blindly reached out for the object in Papyrus' hands.

“OH MY... SEEMS LIKE YOUR EYES ARE STILL HURTING... LET ME HELP YOU.”

Something light was put on Sans' face very gently.

“What...?” he was utterly confused and touched it. “Glasses...?”

“EXACTLY! MY GREAT 'COOL DUDE' SHADES WILL PROTECT YOUR POOR EYES FROM THE EVIL LIGHT!” Papyrus explained happily.

“Bro, I...” Sans began to ponder about a solution to his eye problem.

 

Maybe Alphys could help fix his eyes and look at his still hurting SOUL. After all, she was very experienced in monster anatomy. Papyrus could help him find the way.

 _“Yes,”_ he thought. _“That's a really good idea.”_

 

And with this thought in mind, Sans looked into the general direction of his brother's eyes, took a deep breath and said: “I REALLY **love** these shades, yo! **Totes** RADICAL!”

He stopped in utter surprise.

“AH! I'M GLAD THAT YOU LIKE THEM! THEY ARE MY MOST FAVORITE SUNGLASSES AFTER ALL!” Papyrus clapped his hands happily. “PERFECT FOR FLIRTING!”

Sans was confused. This had never happened before. _“Am I still drunk?”_ he thought. _“Or dreaming?”_   Since his SOUL now hurt like it would break at any moment, it couldn't be a dream. The pain felt too real.

He tried again to tell Papyrus about his problems. “Darn skippy, mah broslice! Let's get the gnarly thread on 'n bounce'n get some **RADICAL** fun, yo!” he babbled instead.

 _"Ugh, what the heck was in that drink?! I sound like a total retard...”_ Sans thought. _“Maybe it's better if I write everything dow- Oh, right, my eyes. I can't see very well right now.”_ He groaned in frustration. _“Alright, just calm down. The effect of the drink will be over soon for sure. I just have to wai-”_ His body suddenly moved on its own and walked across the room, startling Sans.

“ _Wait, wait, wait! Wh-what is happening???”_

His thoughts started to run around in his mind like a bunch of panicking mice.

 

Then he heard the whispering again. The same whispering he had heard from Papyrus before.

**Sansy, dude, you're, like, a _totes_ buzz kill. Chill, cuz now the FRESH times are starting, yo!**

Sans suddenly knew for sure that all of this wasn't a dream.

It was a real _nightmare._


	7. Changing Relevance

“Whelp. This was a sad _tail_ of me _paws_ ing too long and failing.”  
  
“SAAAAAAANS!” Papyrus wailed in frustration, both of his arms outstretched towards the ceiling. “MY POOR SPECIAL ATTACK! JUST YOU WAIT, DOG! I WILL GET YOU! NYEEEEH!” He jumped out of the window, following his small target.  
  
The heavy special attack left a clear trail in the snow, it was easy for the tall skeleton to track the thievish dog down.  
  
"GIVE IT BACK!" Papyrus ordered as he approached the animal, which was now trapped between a house wall and a waste container.  
  
At the very moment that Papyrus tried to catch the dog, it suddenly tackled him, he toppled over in surprise and the dog turned tail and ran.  
  
Luckily the animal forgot its loot, which was still lying next to the container.  
  
Papyrus got back up again and brushed the snow and dirt off his clothes. "I NEED AN ANTI DOG DEVICE..." he mumbled and sighed.  
  
Holding his special attack under his arm, Papyrus went back into his home while lamenting and entered his room to put the large skull back into the box filled with his other attacks.  
  
Suddenly, a barking noise emerged from the living room and Papyrus' head jerked round.  
  
“NYEH?! THE DOG'S BACK??? JUST YOU WAIT, THIS TIME I'LL GET YOU!” he exclaimed, left his room and abruptly  stopped dead in his tracks when the barking changed into heart-melting whimpering. Papyrus looked around concernedly, searching for its source.  
  
Carefully and as quietly as possible he went downstairs. His steps came to a halt when he spotted the cause of the whimpering.  
  
It was the squid.  
  
“WHA-? WHAT'S WRONG? DID I SCARE YOU?" Papyrus covered his mouth with one hand in utter surprise. "I'M SO SORRY! COME HERE...” He approached the glass container, removed its lid and picked up the shivering and still whimpering purple creature.  
  
Papyrus began to pet the squid and smiled warmly.  
  
It started to relax.  
  
"SEE? EVERYTHING IS ALRIGHT NOW. HOW ABOUT SOME SPAGHETTI NOW?“ the tall skeleton offered happily.  
  
The squid began to stroke his face with its tentacles, making joyful sounding licking noises.  
  
"HUH?" Papyrus was dumbfounded now. But the tickling sensation forced laughter out of him. "AH! AHAHAHAH! THAT TICKLES! STOP THAT! AHAHAHA!”  
  
The sound of his laughter got mixed with Sans' soft snoring from the upper floor.  
  
While he was laughing Papyrus noticed that the squid has climbed onto his left shoulder. "H-HEY! BE CAREFUL, YOU COULD FALL!" He grabbed the squid and started to pull if off carefully.  
  
Then he put the wiggling mass back into the glass container, which he sealed again with the lid. "YOU SURE ARE A FEISTY ONE, VIOLET," he said with an amused tone in his voice. "I'LL GET A LEASH FOR YOU NEXT TIME, NYEHEH!"  
  
When Papyrus turned around to go into the kitchen, the real creature was dangling from his scarf like some sort of weird looking tadpole. It had only one tentacle left on its small slimy body, the other three it had to shed to fool the tall skeleton.  
  
Slowly and carefully the creature crawled up to Papyrus' neck and slid into his rib cage, holding on to one of his rib bones.  
  
The tall skeleton was too busy with cleaning a big pot to notice the squid climbing into his chest.  
  
Papyrus' bright glowing white SOUL was right in front of the creature. While it was still holding on to the rib bone, it began to extend its tentacle until it was able to wrap itself around the SOUL, causing Papyrus to stop and touch his chest confusedly. It then let go of the rib bone and jabbed the pointy end of its appendage into the SOUL.  
  
A painful burning sensation raced through Papyrus' entire body and forced him to scream in shock and pain and topple over.  
  
The now brimmed pot tipped over, caused by a hit by Papyrus' sudden flailing arms, and it spilled out its content. A lot of the tomato sauce hit the tall skeleton's eyesockets.  
  
Sans rushed into the kitchen while his brother was sitting on the tiled floor, covering his eyes and sobbing desperately.  
  
“What's wrong, bro?” Sans asked worriedly, rubbing his temple.  
  
“I... I TRIED TO MAKE SPAGHETTI BUT THE TOMATO SAUCE BOILED OVER AND ATTACKED ME! NYOO HOO HOO!” Papyrus explained and pointed with squinted eyes at the tipped over pot.  
  
The squid in his chest remained silent, feeding on the SOUL and recharging its own energy reserves. It was still too weak to start the possible next step of its plan.  
  
“Oh. Should I... get you a cold pack for your eyes?” Sans yawned, now relaxed again at the news that his brother was alright.  
  
“N-NO. IT'S ALRIGHT, BROTHER. IT'S JUST TOMATO SAUCE. THE AWESOME PAPYRUS CAN HANDLE EVEN THIS EVIL VEGETABLE LIQUID! NYEH HEH HEH!” When Papyrus stood up, he was visibly shaking. “I... I JUST NEED A SHORT BREAK...”  
  
He wobbled out of the kitchen and up the staircase to his own bedroom.  
  
Papyrus felt dizzy and lay down on his red race car bed. Usually he wasn't the "sleeping type" but today he felt way too exhausted.  
  
There was a weird uncomfortable pulling sensation in his chest and when he looked down, some sort of tadpole sat on his chest, staring up at him. It reminded him a lot of the purple squid, but way smaller and with only one tentacle instead of four.  
  
"AWWW... ARE YOU VIOLET'S BABY...?" Papyrus' eyes started to sparkle blissfully and he gasped. "I-I CAN'T BELIEVE IT! I AM A FATHER NOW! D'AWWWW!" He carefully picked up the small squid which was tightly wrapped around something white. Papyrus couldn't identify the white object at first. "NYEH? IS THAT YOUR SOUL, VIOLET JUNIOR? YOU SHOULD PUT IT BACK INTO YOUR BODY, IT COULD BREAK. AND THAT WOULD BE VERY, VERY BAD."  
  
The squid blinked slowly as a response.  
  
"YOU ARE SO CUTE! NYEH! JUST WAIT UNTIL YOUR UNCLE SANS SEES YOU!" Papyrus began to cuddle the small creature.

With a quick movement, the squid strengthened its grip on the SOUL, causing it to paralyze the tall skeleton.  
  
A sharp hot pain rushed through his mind, Papyrus blanked out for a moment. When he came back to his senses, the small squid was gone.  
  
Unbeknownst to him it sat in his skull and peeked out of one of his eye sockets.  
  
“V-VIOLET JUNIOR???” The tall skeleton began to look frantically for the small creature. He searched every nook and cranny but to no avail. "NOOO! I LOST THE BABY! I AM A BAD FATHER!" His worried and frightened glance fell onto a nearby mirror. The squid was clearly peeking out of his eye socket.  
  
"VIOLET JUNIOR! YOU ARE OKAY!" Papyrus exclaimed with a breath of relief and touched his face. "YOU ARE ONE LITTLE RASCAL. I ALMOST HAD A HEART ATTACK! NYEH HEH HEH HEH!"  
  
Speaking of it, his SOUL was hurting for sure.  
  
The tall skeleton hunched slightly in pain. "DON'T DO THIS AGAIN! MY POOR HEART IS VERY SENSITIVE!" Papyrus told the little creature in his skull. He decided to take good care of it and prevent it from falling out.

  
And from this moment onward, he kept his eyes narrowed or squinted.

  
  
One day later...  
  
When Papyrus entered his house, he was still shaking from the past assault of the creepy human child. He still could feel its cold knife pressed against his neck.  
  
In search for something to calm him down, he headed towards the kitchen.  
  
At that moment, the creature in his head decided to take the next step in its plan.  
  
Papyrus lost all control over his body and stopped abruptly. Then his body suddenly acted on its own and approached the glass container with the still wriggling other parts of the squid. His hands clumsily pushed the lid away.  
  
But when they tried to pick up the purple mass, the creature accidentally used too much force and crushed the mass, leaving only purple glitter behind.  
  
The squid realized that it was still too weak for controlling a body like this and withdrew from doing so. Its original plan was to reattach the missing tentacles but growing them back looked like a better decision now.  
  
Papyrus blinked in confusion. When he spotted the purple dust on his gloved hands he gasped in terror and sank to the ground. “VIOLET! NO!!! NO!!! WHYYYY???!!! NYOO HOO HOO HOO!”


	8. Changing Location

_Nonononononononononono!_

Sans wasn’t able to grasp a clear thought, his eye sockets burned and he felt like he was drowning in the overwhelming desperation that was flooding his mind.

He had no idea what was currently happening to him. Was it a hallucination? Some kind of unknown disease? He had never experienced something like this before nor heard of it.  
But he just knew that it was something really, really bad. He had to warn his brother before it got even worse. But how should he do that? He couldn’t speak, he couldn’t move his bo-

Wait. He was still able to blink.

A blink of hope.

There was still something he could do. Sans remembered the time when he and Papyrus taught each other morse code to send each other secret messages. A memory of him sending a pun and Papyrus losing it sent melancholic tears to his eyes.  
He felt his body wiping them.

 **Bro, you’re leaking,** the whispering voice informed him. It sounded strangely disinterested.

Sans ignored the voice. He ignored the agonizing pain in his SOUL. He had something to do.

 _S-O-S  
_ He still remembered the morse code distress signal. Three short fast blinks, followed by three long blinks and ended by another three short fast blinks.

 _S-O-S  
_ Again and again.

When Papyrus looked at him confusedly, his SOUL jumped in hopeful excitement.

_S-O-S  
Please, Paps-bro, please! You know the code! Help me! Please! _

“UH… SANS…?”

“Yeah, bro?”

“WHY ARE THERE SUDDENLY LETTERS ON YOUR SHADES, SPELLING THE WORD ‘RADICAL’?”

“ ’cuz this dawg is **so** fly, the ‘cool dude’ shades were, like, **way** too crunk ’n turned rad instead, yo!”

“OH.” Papyrus clearly didn’t understand a single word.

 **Sanzy-buddy, your unrad tricks won’t work here. Lay off your murkin’ ,** the voice whispered in Sans’ mind.  
Suddenly Sans understood, and it was like someone hit his SOUL with a giant hammer, brutally destroying his last shred of hope.

His body was wearing dark shades. And the creature – whatever it was – manipulated his magic to obscure his eyes even more. Sans was trapped in his own body. Without any escape, without any possibility to get the help he needed so urgently.

“Anywayz, I’m slammin’ but I still need, like, some radical food, bro. Do ya have some?”

Papyrus blinked, trying to process whatever nonsense his brother just said to him. “EH... FOOD...? OH! I SEE! YOU’RE HUNGRY! DON’T WORRY! I’LL MAKE SOME SPAGHETTI FOR YOU, SANS! NYEH HEH HEH!”

Sans’ body suddenly shivered violently. “Syke! Homeslice, your buggin’ noodles are, like, just not mah style. I need sumthin’ that’s, like, da **bomb** ! Something **reeeeeaaaaal** fine.”

 _Oh dear god! Do I have to listen to this weird babbling all the time now?!_  
Sans felt the urge to bang his head against a wall. The cringing feeling was too strong for him to handle. After a short while of bizarre talking that felt like an eternity to him, he tried to take everything with humor, he was simply too exhausted to care anymore.  
_Whelp, at least it’s distracting me from the pain in my SOUL._

Papyrus looked appalled. “YOU SERIOUSLY WANT TO GO TO GRILLBY’S? AGAIN??? BUT THIS PLACE IS SO GREASY! AND YOU WERE DRUNK WHEN YOU CAME BACK LAST TIME!”

But Sans’ body didn’t stop to listen and simply fled from the scene, leaving a cloud of smoke behind.

 

The next thing Sans knew, his body was standing right in front of the bar counter in Grillby’s, ordering a huge pile of hamburgers. The barkeeper frowned, but stayed silent and went into the kitchen to get the order.

**First you’ll eat, then it’s tiiiiime to rooooooll, yeah!**

_What the heck do you want from me?! What even are you??? Just let me go!_

**No time for this, Sanzy-buddy! We ain’t stayin’ in a geno route for too long!**

_Geno route? As in “Genocide”? Oh no no no no! I won’t leave! No way!_  
Sans tried his very best and struggled against eating the burgers. Surprisingly he was able to somehow send a few meat patties flying across the room. The dogs from the royal guard sure seemed happy to catch and devour them in an instant. Grillby on the other hand changed his fiery body from a warm orange to an angry deep red.

“Uh, Sans, you should stop this food fight or else Grillbz will ban you from his tavern”, the bird next to him informed Sans.

Sans froze in shock. His body stood up, slammed the money onto the counter shouting “BAM!” as he did so, and went outside.

 

Cold wind hit Sans’ face.

 **Huh. What’s the dilly with you freakin’ out like that?,** the voice whispered.

Suddenly it was like something searched through his memories. Sans felt sick and violated and just wanted to hide under his bed, away from everything.

A smiling Papyrus appeared in front of his inner eyes.

 **Oooh, it’s your bro. I see, I see…** The voice chuckled. It sounded mechanic and fake.

_Don’t even think of harming my brother, you… you thing! You’ll have a bad time! This is a warning!_

**Sansy-buddy, I don’t want to hurt the tough nut, duh! He, like, saved my life! I’ll do the same for him.** It chuckled again. **Oh, and FYI…**

Sans’ body turned around to look into a frozen puddle on the ground. The shades were raised slowly and Sans was able to see a strange purple squid thing hanging from his left eye socket.

_W-What? V-VIOLET???_

**The name’s Fresh. Ya should memorize it, ‘cuz we’ll be together for a loooooong time.  
**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What the heck is Fresh planning?


	9. Changing Voice

Papyrus raced eagerly through the living room waving the pipe of the vacuum cleaner. "En garde, miserable dust! The great Papyrus will destroy you!" 

He stopped when he noticed the sock that had been laying on the floor next to the television set for a very long time, which had become the home of a small family of dustbunnies at the moment. (They had recently managed to establish a stable internet connection.) 

Papyrus frowned disapprovingly. Hospitality or not - his brother should really take care of his dirty laundry.

 

The cell phone rang nearby and Papyrus turned on the heel to take the call.

“NYEH?”

"Hey, what's up, Papyrus?"

"UNDYNE??? WHY ARE YOU CALLING ME? DON'T YOU REMEMBER HOW TO OPEN THE DOOR? I'LL BE HAPPY TO EXPLAIN, NYEH HEH HEH!"

"No time for explanations! You need to get to the tool shed now! It's time to celebrate your entry into the royal guard!"

"N-NYEH? U-UNDYNE...???” Papyrus couldn't believe his (non existing) ears. "A-ARE YOU SERIOUS???”

He only got a low beeping sound in response.

"OH! I HAVE TO HURRY! I SHOULDN'T KEEP UNDYNE WAITING! NYEH HEH HEH HEH!"

 

Papyrus hurriedly put the vacuum cleaner back and made sure he hadn't forgotten to turn off the stove.

“A MEMBER OF THE ROYAL GUARD ALWAYS HAS TO BE ALERT, COURAGEOUS AND DETERMINED! NGAAAAH!!!" he quoted Undyne excitedly.

 

After he had checked everything, he hurried to the tool shed, which was located directly next to Papyrus' and Sans' home.

 

When he opened the door, he was greeted by cobwebs, dust and the deepest darkness imaginable.

"UNDYNE? WHERE ARE YOU?" He raised his hand and pressed the light switch. Nothing happened. "UGH! I CAN’T BELIEVE IT! SANS FORGOT TO CHANGE THE LIGHT BULB AGAIN!"

  
Something was moving in the dark. "Papyrus? We're not done with the preparations yet! Go into the corner, close your eyes and don't open them again until I tell you!"

Papyrus did as ordered and stepped into the darkest corner. He almost stumbled over something. His heart was racing with excitement.

"That's the spirit. Wait patiently. It won't take long." Something was hurrying past him and into the outdoor world. Papyrus could hear something rattling and clinking at the door.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING, UNDYNE?"

"I'm just making sure nothing bad happens while you're waiting."

"AW, YOU'RE SO CONSCIENTIOUS, UNDYNE!" Papyrus was honored. Undyne really was the best.

 

Fresh checked the locks on the door one last time. Locked. Papyrus wouldn't be able to get out of the tool shed without help.

Sans couldn't believe it. This thing was able to imitate voices and had lured his gullible brother into a trap!

 

_ Why did you do that?! _

**Chill, buddy. This way, the human will not immediately discover and fight him. The bro will be, like,  safe and all thanks to the fresh master now, yeah!**

_But_ _for how long... ?_

Sans wished he could do something. Anything. But he was doomed only to watch.

 

**Very well. Your brother's safe, now you shouldn't have any trouble eating.**

_ Forget it! I'm not your puppet! _

San's militant words unfortunately hit deaf ears as Fresh headed back to Grillby’s.

 

But just as they were in sight of the building, a small dark figure appeared on the horizon. Sans recognized them immediately and felt fear, panic and hatred rise up in him.

Fresh reacted and hid quickly behind a bush.

 

The human child walked calmly along the snowy path, with every step a little bit of dust trickled off their sharp knife and dirty clothes.

Sans now noticed how quiet it had suddenly become and his heart became heavy. He remembered the last few reruns. By this time, all the monsters had already left Snowdin. Only his brother had been the only one brave enough to stand in the way of the human.

But in this timeline, Papyrus was trapped in the tool shed, not knowing what was going on. And all of this because Fresh had messed things up.

Maybe the squid was right and Papyrus could be saved in this way...?

 

Sans shook his mental head.

No, this was not the time for some kind of Stockholm syndrome. Fresh was extremely  dangerous, he couldn't trust him at all. Papyrus was still in grave danger.

A loud splashing behind him caused Sans to startle.

 

The child stopped and looked around.

 

A gigantic yellow tentacle monster waddled clumsily towards them. The child receded immediately.

"Hello! Onion-San is my name! Do you happen to know the way to the capital? We were supposed to be evacuated, but apparently I'm lost..."

Onion-San smiled in embarrassment and raised his tentacles to scratch his gigantic head. To his horror, the child suddenly began to scream and before he knew it, their knife flashed past his head and got stuck in the rock wall behind him.

"Ooooh. I-I'm sorry. I should probably goooooooooooooooo..." Onion-San glided in fear back into the water and disappeared hastily.

 

Sans was surprised. He'd never seen that before.

 

The human child was as white as a sheet of chalk and trembling. Stiff as a poker, they turned away and moved towards Snowdin, still shaking.

Sans heard Fresh's emotionless laughter in his head.

 

**Who'd have thunk? Octopusophobia. An’ kiddo has lost the knife. Interesting.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Poor Onion-San. He rarely appears in fanfictions.


	10. Changing Plans

Fresh waited in his hiding place until the child disappeared from his view. Then he straightened himself up again and stretched himself with faked delight.

**Time to make up for a few things, yo!**

Sans could feel the corners of his mouth unintentionally twisting into a distorted grin.

 

When Fresh walked through Snowdin, there was no monster to be seen anywhere. The whole town was deserted. The silence was creepy.

Sans felt reminded of the previous times, as he so often had been. He sighed inwardly.

 

When Fresh opened the door to Grillby's, Sans was greeted by a cosy warmth and a well-known smell. Even without all the guests and the barkeeper, the small restaurant managed to radiate a cosy atmosphere.

Sans' body headed for the counter and began to stuff itself with all sorts of edible things. And Sans himself had to realize to his horror that Fresh sucked every little bit of energy from the food out of his SOUL.

Like a leech.

 

 _An oversized leech with terrible language habits, to be exact,_ Sans added cynically.

**Mah lingo’s da bomb, brah. But don't cha worry, ya'll have, like,  more than enuff time to get attached to them.**

_Yay for me…_

 

At some point Fresh mercifully stopped fattening Sans.

**Aiight. That should be enuff for da big leap.**

 

He made his way out of the tavern, adjusting his clothes.

_The big leap? What? What are you talking about??_

 

Before Sans could hear Fresh’s response, his body collided against something soft outside Grillby’s. His heart stopped in shock when he saw the child.

They no longer had a knife with them, but wore warm gloves instead.

 

It was just then that Sans came up with an idea. It was a risky and rather foolish idea, but he was willing to take that risk.

He collected all the energy that Fresh had not yet absorbed and used it to block his ability to teleport and flee.

 

A confused sound in his head showed him that he was successful.

Sans remembered how angry the child reacted last time when he didn't want to stick to the plot. If Sans was right, they would consider his weird colorful outfit and Fresh's ridiculous behavior to be a timeline error and perform an immediate reset.

The next time Sans would be smarter and destroy Fresh on his first encounter.

 

**Ya do know I can, like, totally read your mind and all, right?**

Sans was frightened to his limbs, but he remained calm.

 _Have fun with the human child,_ he thought derisively. _They’ll make quick work of a buffoon like you._

**Buffoon?**

Fresh's emotionless inner voice had a dangerous undertone resonating through it.

Suddenly, Sans felt something warm and slippery wrap itself around every single bone in his body.

**I'll show you what this buffoon can do.**

 

At first, the child did not know how to react when the skeleton in front of them suddenly began to chatter and to wave its hands like a maniac.

“Cut the crap," they spit at it angrily. "I don't have time for your jokes."

"What's the dilly with the hostility? We're, like, **best** friendos! Don't cha be so heartless and give your bro a high five, yo!" Fresh raised his hand to greet them, but the child ignored that.

"Where's your useless brother?!”

"Leave the poor P-bro out of this.” Fresh turned away to look seriously at the horizon. "Remember that, dear readers. Fresh Sez:  Don't mess with da weaker ones."

 

This time, Sans didn't know how to react.

_‘Readers’? What the heck are you talking about? There's no one here but us and the child!_

**Ya'll soon understand,** Fresh’s voice muttered, with an air of mystery. **Very soon.**

_Huh???_

Now Sans was sure that Fresh was out of his mind.

 

Suddenly he felt a blow into the pit of his stomach, his body was ruthlessly swept off his feet and landed backwards in a snowdrift. He could see that the child had raised their fist to a rude gesture and looked at him with pure hatred. Then they turned away.

To his horror, he realized that they were moving directly towards the tool shed.

_Papyrus!!!_

 

Before he knew it, his body moved at lightning speed. Fresh made a tremendous leap and landed directly in front of the surprised child.

"That **wasn't** rad, kiddo." He raised his pointing finger reprimanding. Then he looked at the horizon again. "Remember this, dear readers. Fresh Sez: To show the middle finger to others is **enormously** rude. It’s totes **no good!"**

The child had recovered quickly from their surprise and was ready to attack Fresh again.

 

Sans suddenly felt Fresh tense himself. The sound of tearing fabric was heard and violet appendages made their way into the open air. The child let out a yell, jumped back, slipped on the frozen ground and fell hard on their back.

"Y-You're not Sans!" they screamed.

 

Fresh stood in front of them, surrounded by a mass of squirming tentacles, calmly adjusting his sunglasses with one of them.

"You're **absolutely** right, buddy. I'm not Sans.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay for gifs!  
> (Just in case that the gif doesn't work:   
> Fresh says:  
> "I'm not Sans.   
> I'm your worst nightmare." )


	11. Changing Struggle

The child’s entire body was shaking. Sans was able to see this despite his very limited field of vision.

 _Huh, that's new,_ he thought in surprise. _The kid had never shown such fear before. I never thought they would even be able to feel at all._

He remembered the times before from past timelines, in which he had looked the child in their cold, blood-red eyes and - A purple dinosaur suddenly waddled into the picture and began to blare a terribly cheesy song. The child and Sans stared at the gaudy creature dumbfounded.

**Dude, your thoughts are, like, waaaayyy too gloomy, yo, it's time someone cheered ya up.**

Sans would love to wring Fresh's neck at that moment.

 _Get your hands off my memories, you pain in the_ **_ash!_ ** _Put your_ **_darn_ ** _cheer where the sun doesn't shine!_

He felt his enraged magic seething inside him. Fresh also seemed to feel this.

**Whoa, whoa, easy on da young horses, buddy. That much excitement only causes headaches. Relax for a lil’ bit.**

Suddenly, it was as if everything had been wrapped in cotton wool; as if Sans was watching from a distance. Even the pain in his soul was but a dull sensation now.

_What… what are you... doing...?!_

**You're going ta chill. Your bestest pal Fresh will take care of eeeeveryyyythiiiing.**

_l- I'm not... your friend...! ... And.... "bestest" is.... not a... real word..._

 

In the meantime the child had gotten back on their feet. They tried to sneak past Fresh, but he reacted promptly and stood in their way again. "Kiddo, what are ya doing? Ya still have to apologize for your rude behaviour."

"I-I don't have to do anything, you sick F-freak!" the kid stuttered scornfully.

 _Look who’s talking,_ Sans thought cynically.

 Again, the human tried to get past Fresh, but he did not allow it. Eventually the child gave up and closed their eyes.

"Sans...?"

 That voice. Gentle, yet determined. Sans hadn't heard it in such a long time. Hope sprouted within him.

  _Frisk???_

 "Sans, I'm so sorry..." Tears ran down the child's face. "I tried to stop Chara, I really tried, but I failed."

 _Frisk, it's not too late! You have to reset!_ screamed Sans in his mind. _You can still save everyone!_

 "Sans, tell me what to do..." The child stretched out their arms in search of help, Sans would have loved to take them into his arms and comfort them. "Please..."

Fresh seemed to be lost in thought.

 

_H-hey, uh, Fresh! Tell the human to reset!_

**So that ya can destroy me next time, right? Forget it, buddy. The Freshmaster will NOT deviate from his radically awesome plan.**

 

"What’re ya supposed to do, pal? Easy! Apologize." Fresh looked at the child with anticipation.

The human child was approaching slowly now. "How about a hug instead...?"

 Fresh could barely avoid the sharp stone with which the child suddenly tried to slice him up. He almost slipped on the icy ground.

"Sorry, bro, I'm not the kind of guy who likes to cuddle," he said shrugging.

" **Darn** it!" the child cursed, clutching the stone tightly. "I was hoping you'd fall for it!"

"Watch your language," Fresh told them. "Is this the way ya greet your mom, too?"

"That's none of your business, you **heavily censored by Fresh, ho boy, this kid, seriously** " screamed the child.

He shook his head disapprovingly. "I've never met such an unradically rude person like you before. And this funky dude”, he points at himself, “is really losing his patience now. I only wanted to treat myself to a small meal and set off again, but noooooo... Ya had to cross my radical path. I think it's time to teach you a lesson."

 Fresh jumped back and began to glow purple, his tentacles vanished again. The child raised their arms in front of their face in a protecting manner, keeping an eye on Fresh.

 

Finally, Fresh whirled around, formed pistols with his hands, shouting: "BOO YAH!" as a small plastic colorful spiral landed in front of the human child.

 

The child stared alternately at the spiral and then at him. "What?"

Fresh groaned. "This is a Slinky."

"Oh."

 

Awkward silence.

 

Sans was now also confused.

_What the heck is that idiot doing?!_

 

But then he noticed. The increasing pain in his soul, the distinct distortion of his magic. Fresh prepared something in the background. Something big. Something **very** big.

 

This something began to materialize above Fresh. A gigantic skull with glowing eyes and razor-sharp teeth.

"And this is my lesson."

The child could no longer evade, the skull - a Gaster Blaster, as Sans had recognized- fired too quickly.

 But instead of the expected energy beam, the child was struck by an enormous surge of neon orange slime, which froze into a hard mass in the icy cold of Snowdin, rendering the child immobile.

"I hope you will learn something from it." Fresh blew imaginary smoke from his finger pistols and pretended to put them back into their holsters.

 

**That was really cool of me, eh? Eh? Eh???**

_No comment._

 

Fresh tapped himself on the shoulder. "Well, well, P-bro's safe, the kid can't bother us anymore, so we can get the heck out of here. All this black on white is too boring in the long run, I need some color again, yo!"

Sans sighed. He would probably never understand what Fresh thought when he was speaking nonsense.

 

Fresh spinned on his heel, but stopped when someone suddenly stepped into his field of vision.

Grillby.

And…

 

_Papyrus???_

 


End file.
